EdTechSR Ep 358: Gemini AI Everywhere

EdTech Situation Room by Jason Neiffer and Wes Fryer

Welcome to episode 358 (“Gemini AI Everywhere”) of the EdTech Situation Room from September 3, 2025, where technology news meets educational analysis. This week, Dr. Jason Neiffer (aicentrist.com) and Dr. Wesley Fryer (wesfryer.com) unpack Google’s sweeping shift from Assistant to Gemini—from phones and smart speakers to the classroom—and what those defaults mean for teachers, students, and families. We discuss how AI is changing the competitive landscape (and even how policymakers are thinking about antitrust in a world of fast-moving AI features and “set-by-default” experiences), plus the practicalities of turning on Gemini in school domains and coaching staff on safe, effective use. The guys trade stories about AI’s real-world hiccups (hello, drive-thru fails), the uneven impact on jobs (including translators), and the privacy lines around smart-home ecosystems (Google Home vs. Home Assistant, Zigbee/Z-Wave, and local control). On the developer side, we explore new AI coding copilots like Google’s “Jules” and popular editor integrations (e.g., Cursor/VS Code), along with hands-on image-generation progress (“Nano Banana” and friends) and why prompt-injection and AI safety habits matter more than ever. We wrap with quick looks at model comparison tools (LM Arena), tips for school leaders enabling Gemini, and our Geeks of the Week.

Our show was live-streamed and archived on YouTube Live via StreamYard.com and auto-archived to YouTube. We are now publishing from Substack too! Subscribe to us with your favorite podcast listening app, or directly on or https://www.youtube.com/@edtechSR. Follow our EdTechSR page on Facebook, mastodon.education/@edtechsr on Mastodon for updates, and join LIVE on Wednesday nights if you can. All show notes are available at edtechSR.com/links.

🔗 Links We Discussed

* Gemini Is Replacing Google Assistant on Google Home Devices from October 1 — Here’s What We Know (Tom’s Guide, 3 September 2025)

* AI Killed My Job: Translators (Blood in the Machine, 21 Aug 2025)

* Someone Ordered 18,000 Cups of Water at an AI Drive-Thru — Now Fast Food Chains Are Reconsidering (ZDNet, 3 September 2025)

* Google Unveils Jules, Its Autonomous Coding Agent (Geeky Gadgets, 2 September 2025)

* How AI Upended a Historic Antitrust Case Against Google (Tech Policy Press, 3 Sept 2025)

* Jason’s Geek of the Week: lmarena.ai

* Wes’ Geeks of the Week: DIY Home Assistant IoT Setup (video) - Wes’ Flipboard magazine iReading - Federated Reader

🧭 Links We Did NOT Discuss

* NASA and Google Test AI Medical Assistant for Astronaut Missions to the Moon and Mars (Space.com, 3 September 2025)

* Chatbots Are Susceptible to Flattery and Peer Pressure (The Verge, 3 September 2025)

* AI Inside Podcast

* Tech Policy Press

* Video: “I got a private lesson on Google’s NEW Nano Banana AI Model”

* Google AI Studio

* Prompt Injection

* Model Context Protocol: Introduction

Episode 358 is also available on YouTube.

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